‘The FCA has published its Business Plan for 2015/2016. One of the key themes for both regulation and risk is the pensions market given the pension reforms taking place on 6 April. The Business Plan highlights the fact that the pensions market is a key area of concern for the FCA and an area which it will be monitoring closely in the next year and beyond.’

‘Caroline Jennings reviews the recent EAT case of Palmer v RBS UKEAT/0083/14 which concerns whether or not a statutory restriction on eligibility for early retirement benefits could amount to age discrimination.’

‘In the recent police A19 test case, the Employment Tribunal unanimously found, “that the practice of requiring the retirement of nearly all officers in the Forces who could be required to retire under Regulation A19 of the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”, and therefore amounted to age discrimination.’

“The Bar Council has launched updated taxation guidance for barristers to help them manage their tax position. This coincides with changes to the tax system introduced by the Finance Act 2013, which received Royal Assent on 18 July 2013.”

“On a true construction of article 17(3) of Parliament and Council Directive 2004/38/EC, the Zimbabwean widow of a Spanish national had acquired the right of permanent residence in the United Kingdom on the ground that her late husband had, before the date of their marriage, ‘acquired himself the right of permanent residence … on the basis of paragraph 1′ of article 17, viz having retired from work due to permanent incapacity. It was not a requirement that a family member seeking to rely on such a right had to be a family member prior to, or as at the date of, the European Union member’s own acquisition of permanent residence on which reliance was now placed.”

“Employers looking to defend or reintroduce a mandatory retirement age will find ‘very little comfort’ in last week’s decision allowing a law firm to force a partner to retire at 65, an expert has said.”

“The Employment Tribunal has rejected an age discrimination claim by lawyer Leslie Seldon against his former firm Clarkson Wright & Jakes (CWJ), which had initially seemed likely to threaten law firm’s ability to enforce a compulsory retirement age for partners.”

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